E.W. Scripps Takes $686 Million Charge Against National Networks
The E.W. Scripps Co. reported a second quarter loss as it took a charge against its national networks business.
The net loss was $682.4 million, or $8.10 cents a share, compared to net income of $29.1 million, or $32 cents a share, a year ago.
Revenues fell 2% to $582.8 million.
Local media profit was $81 million, up from $80.7 million a year ago. Revenue fell 1% to $352 million.
Core advertising revenue–excluding political spending–was down 5.2% to $149 million and political advertising was $3.8 million, compared to $24 million during the midterm elections a year ago.
Distribution revenue was up 14% to $195 million
At Scripps Networks, profit fell to $60.3 million from $73.3 million a year ago.
Revenue fell 3.2% to $231 million and expenses rose 3.2% because of higher employees costs and distribution fees.
Second quarter CTV revenue was up 18%.
Scripps took a $686 million non-cash charge to reduce the carrying value of goodwill at its networks business.
The company pointed to its sports and news businesses as being bright spots.
“Our Scripps Sports division came to life in the second quarter with the launch of the WNBA on Ion . We are very pleased to be attracting a large number of fans to this Friday night franchise,” said Scripps CEO Adam Symson.
The WNBA Friday Night Spotlight on Ion began its run on May 26. Ratings for games on Ion have grown 42% since the inaugural broadcast and continue to grow. Also, Scripps’ new independent stations in Las Vegas and Salt Lake City will begin running the Stanley Cup Champion Vegas Golden Knights National Hockey League games with the preseason in late September. Advertising demand for both Scripps Sports properties has been strong, the company said.
“In our Local Media segment, we are pleased to be making good progress on our distribution renewals, netting Scripps significant increases to market rate and leading to mid-teens distribution revenue growth this year as well as significant net distribution margin expansion. In local advertising, the most positive story was the return of automotive spending – our second-largest core advertising category. Automotive has now shown year over year growth for four consecutive quarters,” Symson said.
“Scripps Sports and Scripps News are both important components to the reorganization we began at the start of the year,” Symson said.
“The reorganization is positioning the company to capture opportunities in the industry growth areas of news, sports and entertainment; TV distribution platforms including over the air and connected TV; and datacasting and other businesses enabled by our large spectrum footprint. We continue to expect to realize savings of at least $40 million through centralization and consolidation of layers of management as well as advances in newsroom technology and organizational structure that also allow us to put more reporters into the community and deepen our local coverage,” he said.
